


A Cat-astrophic Dance

by Kvaesir



Category: Call of Cthulhu (Roleplaying Game), Dick Hardy's Investigators Office, Original Work
Genre: Diary/Journal, Gen, Hospitalization, Ruth is being gay but she won't admit it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:34:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27444961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kvaesir/pseuds/Kvaesir
Summary: To say the estate sale could have gone better was an understatement.Ruth wasn't usually one for keeping journals, after all, it's just another oppotunity for people to invade your privacy, but what else was she going to do while she sat in hospital for a week with thoughts of the Omorose swirling around her head?She could always burn the pages later, it wouldn't be the first time she'd done it.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 7
Collections: Dick Hardy's Investigators Office





	A Cat-astrophic Dance

_[There are several pages tucked into the back of the journal. Plain paper with “St Mary’s Hospital” printed at the top and messier than usual handwriting crammed onto them]_

01/03/22:  
I ripped out my stitches last night. Had to wait at 4am as Nancy stitched me up again. An older nurse told me with a thinly veiled sneer that perhaps if I didn’t want to go through stitches twice I shouldn’t have sat up so fast, as if I hadn’t woken up crying when it happened.

I wanted to tell her to get kicked in the ribs. I bit my tongue instead.

Morgan and Dick know what happened, Nancy mentioned it as she helped me into a sitting position when they came to visit. Dick gave me a disapproving look and she scrambled to clarify that I hadn’t done it on purpose before Dick really had a chance to open his mouth and tell me off.

I thought maybe feigning a coughing fit would send her running for a glass of water but no, she just smiled and pat me on the back before answering Dick’s question about what happened, telling them both that I’d had a nightmare and had ended up jerking awake a little too abruptly for the stitches to handle.

Next time I won’t tell the nurses anything. Hopefully there isn’t a next time. Thankfully I hadn’t told her what the nightmare was. She’s a sweet girl but I don’t need Dick and Morgan knowing I still wake up to the sickening crunch of Henry kicking my ribs in outside the Hadley estate. They’d only ask questions.

Morgan gave me a hug when he heard I’d had a nightmare. The angle was a little awkward, what with him trying not to put any pressure on my side, but it was nice. 

He hugs like Alice. Almost. His hug was softer, if that makes sense. It probably doesn’t. And I don’t know how to explain it any other way. I’ve missed her hugs. Rare as they were, the world always felt a little safer afterwards. 

Dick just stood there shifting on his heels, not seeming to know quite how to react, the scolding he’d prepared seeming to dissolve mid-thought. Nancy left after that, only coming back to give me the glass of water that she’d promised me and again when visiting hours were finishing to hurry them along.

The glass of water was quickly forgotten when Dick took a quick glance around before retrieving Mr Tubbs from somewhere inside his coat and plopping him onto the bed. He brought cat food too, said I could keep him here while I recovered instead of Dick keeping him. Personally I thought it was an excellent idea but Morgan said no, and told Dick to take him home and look after him until I’ve been discharged. He agreed somewhat reluctantly, dropping Mr Tubbs back into his pocket when it was time to leave with a quiet grumble. It’ll be strange sleeping without him curled up on the pillow this week. His purring in my ear helps me sleep when I’m feeling restless

I asked after Omorose, which made Morgan smirk. Probably thinks I didn’t see it but it was definitely there. He has the wrong end of the stick. Just because I wasn’t expecting her to turn Roscoe’s pick up line on me two seconds after we’d pulled her away from him. It threw me off. I thought maybe that was what she wanted, hoping I’d tell her about our investigation, given the way she smiled when I told her my name was Ava. Regardless, my interest is purely professional.

Or mostly professional, anyway. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to finding her intriguing. Morgan and Dick think my theory is ridiculous, and maybe it is, I don’t know. Morgan knows more about magic than I do but there’s something strange about her. First a cat turns up at Dick’s with black fur and green eyes, then there’s scratches and black fur at the store she robbed and we finally track her down to find our thief is a woman with black hair and the greenest eyes I’ve ever seen.

Morgan did find a spell that lets the user take control of a cat but unless she’s simply that dedicated to the aesthetic (although that’s a respectable motive) the likelihood of going to the effort of finding a cat look-alike seems low. Which leads me to the theory that she can shapeshift. Maybe just into a cat, maybe into other things. A trip to the cabinet of curiosities may be in order after I’m out of hospital. If they’ll have us, since Omorose has apparently disappeared without returning the items she stole, as promised. Morgan and Dick got back to the office after I was admitted and she was gone, not so much as a stray black hair left behind. I’d almost hoped she’d drop by the hospital and check on me, stupid as the idea is. She may have helped us get away, that doesn’t mean there’s an emotional connection there. Thankfully Dick told the client we’re still investigating and is going to stick to the story until I’m out of hospital, so we have another week to come up with an explanation for our failure.

In the meantime I have nothing to do but lay here. I’m not stupid enough to try and sneak out of hospital when sitting up too quickly re-opened my wound. Even if I was, I’m sure both Morgan and Dick would drag me back here as soon as they found out, so I’m stuck here for at least a few days. I could try to track down Omorose. The chances of having any success is slim but, if she lives in London, she may be in the phone book. That being said, I only have a first name and there’s no guarantee she isn’t using an alias. She told me her name was Rosa, before the fight broke out. I’m sure there are far more Rosas in London than there are Omoroses.

I should ask Nancy for a phonebook tomorrow anyway. Just in case. Not only because she still needs to return the items, but because she could be a useful addition to the team, if she was interested and Dick decided to hire her. Two big ifs, considering how little we know about her, but it would be good to have her around.

\------------------------------------------

07//03/22:  
Nancy finally gave me the all-clear and Dick came to pick me up from the hospital today. She made sure to tell him I still needed another week of rest but as long as he doesn’t catch me doing anything I shouldn’t be, he can’t tell me off.

Perhaps breaking into the office can be put on hold for a while, to keep up the facade that I’m behaving and not doing anything strenuous. It’d be a lie to say my side doesn’t hurt still, another patient bumped into me in the corridor the day before last and half winded me. Thankfully Nancy didn’t see, she would’ve likely insisted I stayed even longer and I need something better than staring at the wall and flicking peas at visitors to occupy my mind.

It turns out Omorose wasn’t lying. I’d just gotten off the phone with Morgan, to tell him I was home, when I noticed one of the floorboards looked off so decided to try prying it up and found the items stuffed into a space underneath it. How she knows my flat better than I do is a mystery. Still, all the items seem to be accounted for and it’s a useful nook to store items that I don’t want to be easily found. I put the bottle of glowing liquid there for safe-keeping until I get a chance to figure out exactly what it is. Ended up phoning Morgan back maybe 20 minutes after the first conversation to let him know. We’ll head over to the Cabinet tomorrow to return the items, in the meantime I’ve put them back under the floorboards, just in case.

It’s a little concerning that she went to the trouble of finding my address, presumably by breaking into the office while Dick drove Morgan and I to the hospital, before climbing up to the second story window and letting herself in to return the items. The more worrying idea is that she found my address through other means, though there’s no evidence behind that theory and little I could do about it anyway. On the upside, it seems she means us no harm and unless I want to move (at the risk of her finding my address a second time) there’s a chance she’ll come to visit again soon.


End file.
